Gunpowder



UNITED STATES PATENT FFFQEQ FRANC S A. HALSEY, OF SAN RAFAEL, .CALIFORNlA, ASSIGNOR TO THE ECONOMIC SMOKELESS POWDER COMPANY, OF ILLINOIS.

GUNPOWDER.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 825,499, dated may 23, 1899 Application filed December 3, 1898. Serial No. 898,140. (N specimens) v5 have invented aneviand-useful Improvementin Smokeless Powders, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a powder, chiefly for use in firearms, which will 10 be smokeless, comparatively safe to manufacture andluse with'a high-explosive-po wer on ignition, and which will not deteriorate on exposure.

- It consists 'of a compound made up of the I5 following elements combined in about the proportions specified: picrate of ammonia, forty-seven per cent.; bichromate of potassium, twenty-three per cent; nitrate of barium, thirty per cent. These constituents 2e are mixed together in the usual manner, he-

- ing first finely pulverized, the picrate and potassiur'nbein g mixed together first and-then with the barium nitrate, and all are then intimately incorporated by passing through a machine or wheelmill, in which they are stirred and rolled until thoroughly homogeneous, the process being assisted by the use of a small quantity of water. The resultant 'eomposition is at this stage-in the form of a pasty mass, which is then granulated by reducing the pressure of the rolls and passing it through a sieve and "it then dried,

It is obvious that the exact proportions above specified may be slightly varied and the chemical equivalents of certain of the constituents might be'substituted without dea parting from the spirit of my invention.

What I claim, and desi: e to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The herein-described powder consisting of picrate of ammonia, bichromate of potassium, and nitrate of barium combined in about the proportions specified.

FRANCIS A. HALSEY. v Witnesses:

' En. H. FORD,

WM. 0. SAVAGE. 

